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Talk:APPENDIX XV: How many Troops in a Legion?/@comment-28660294-20160609184258
"You dont need as many ground troops if the enemy can't land theirs." :-Agreed. Oddly enough, FTL forces are necessary for offense and defense, and can be sufficient as well as necessary defense (but cannot be sufficient for offense). Ground forces are necessary for offense (cant take dirt without it), but not necessarily necessary for defense (if the enemy cant land, you dont need an army). : '' "I agree, but I don't think it's the #1 limiting factor: IMHO, politics are even more influential in limiting available manpower in TOG; no senator is willing to lose his position to a coup (or worse; a vote of no confidence by his peers) while 'his' troops are months or even years away. Senators can direct military funding to a certain degree, and they can certainly make ships better suited to a revenue cutter role than a ship of the line..."'' -I was speaking of it as compared to manpower as a limiting factor. Political will is a separate lever, and a 'soft' limit - hard to measure, subject to change. The number of bodies and the dollar cost of bullets set 'hard' limits on what that political will can accomplish. Consider the Shannendam County - I doubt a lack of political will is what is preventing them from fielding more legions and warships. It cannot be manpower that is doing so. Ergo, it must be money. '' IMHO, when invading a world, Strike Legions do not operate alone; there are enough auxiliae and even attached "lesser" legions to multiply its strength significantly.'' -I suppose that depends on how much spacelift you have available. Given that FTL ships are ludicriously more expensive than what they carry, it seems (to me) that the limiting factor on invasions is spacelift. If spacelift is limited, Id be making at least the early stages of the invasion with the highest combat power-density forces I could. And I may have been sloppy with my terminolgy. Substiute 'Grav Vehicle Equipped Units' for 'Strike Legions'. I just dont see the attacker deploying tracked vehicles in an invasion. To garrison it after the front has moved on, sure. '' The problem with garrison forces is their immobility, even on the same world; A strike- legion led brigade lands, sets up a beachhead, then effectively besieges important targets, rolling (er... hovering) in while capturing the surrounding areas. Local militia can only respond locally, but surrounding regions on the planet can reinforce the ones repelling the invaders... until fully grav-capable reinforcements arrive and begin a countersiege...'' But Garrison forces are on the other hand far, far less expensive to field, and have a great return on investment in static defense roles. Grav units go on invasion transports. Ground units get built locally or imported in peacetime on freighters. Amusingly, Grav Vehicles are Fusion-Powered Battlemechs, and Ground vehicles are... Conventional Vehicles with ICE powerplants and Autocannon 5s. Only moreso. I think we are mostly loudly agreeing with each other at this point, but its been an interesting coversation. Do you ever anticipate putting up your other appendixes/articles? There are some of them the contents of which are a subject about which I have great curiosity. - Shipyards, Ship Classes, KessRith, notably. Also, at some point, Id like to discuss possible rules changes in Leviathan with you - fighter and missile and escort related.